A rambling, scatterbrained account of the life of doll addict DorrieBelle. She's got an overworked husband, an autistic son, a damaged ticker and just discovered she's a full fledged insulin-using diabetic and slightly anemic. She's also a tightwad who loves to sew doll clothes, and could talk the ear off a bartender. And she's got a heckuva temper ! Luckily, her 'Empress of the Universe' delusion helps to keep things in check. If you wanna know more, we pity you... but here it is !

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Sunday, February 1, 2015

I think it's this design's fault I'm back into machine embroidery...

Happy February ! Say ‘white
rabbit’ for good luck, and don’t forget to change all the calendars. You
survived the first month of 2015 !

I am having a serious case
of drag-butt, to the point where Beloved Hubby made dinner tonight. I took my
sweet ole time with today's embroidery project – even though I had all the colors
picked out, with several second-guessed and replaced at the last minute, I
still meandered and delayed and put it off ‘til almost 3pm. Didn’t start Brody
up ‘til a bit after 4pm, it took me that long to get the fabric selected and
hooped. I didn’t wanna go with white, since a good chunk of the design was
white, and that was also why I didn’t wanna go with blue. I wasn’t particularly
thrilled with using a dark fabric, in case the design stitched sparse, it would
show through. That happens a lot. But I finally decided this was a test
stitch-out anyway, it’d be a bonus if I could actually use it. So I used the
dark green cotton currently draped over Odyssey in lieu of an actual cover.

What it's supposed to look like.

Since the last design
puckered a bit, I researched why. Yeah, I do tug at the fabric a bit after it’s
hooped, it’s nearly impossible to hold the material taut and hoop it and the
stabilizer together at the same time. But evidently, I need to work on that,
because I should be able to. Hmpft. I kind of cheated and tugged at the
stabilizer instead, and once free of the hoop, the fabric didn’t pucker much at
all. Okay then.

Had a few problems – broken thread,
broken bobbin thread, jump threads that were nearly impossible to get scissors
under to cut, and I had to take the hoop out to fix the bobbin thread issue.
That may be why Elsa’s hairline doesn’t quite meet Elsa’s head. I also
accidentally used black bobbin thread instead of black embroidery thread – the difference
in weight may also have contributed to the ‘off’ quality of Olaf’s face. And,
again, it’s hard to tell, but the dress and sleeves are two different colors,
and her face is done in two different skin tones. I’ll try it again – I love
this design ! – but I’m more-or-less happy with this one. Sixteen colors and 21
thread changes. Between that and the issues and jump thread cuts, it took about
an hour and fifteen minutes to stitch out. Worth it, though, in my book !